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Depot at Ft Gibson, Cherokee Nation, Ind. Territory.
Fort Gibson, 1894. Boudoir cabinet card photograph, 4.625” x 7” on larger mount. Photographer’s credit blindstamped on lower-right corner of mount. Early ink inscription at verso: "Aug 7/1894. Depot at Ft. Gibson Cherokee Nation, Ind. Territory. Taken during the payment, about July 18th 1894." CONDITION: Very good, light wear to extremities, faint soiling to image. A remarkable documentary photo, taken from the top of a train car in Fort Gibson, Indian Territory, capturing the diverse crowd assembled during the disbursement of “strip money”—compensation from the U.S. Government to eligible members of the Cherokee Nation for ceding, under pressure, the Cherokee strip to white settlement. The bulk of the crowd in this photo is gathered on the Fort Gibson train platform, in front of the station and separate “Lunch Room” on the right. Women with parasols and men with cases, bags, and bedrolls mill and sit about the wooden platform. Several appear to be of at least partial African descent, and one man, at the right of the image, holds a guitar on his knee. Several people, including one young child, are sprawled on the train car roofs—the photographer’s vantage point—while others, behind the cars to the left, hunch on piles of lumber. The early inscription on the verso reads: “Aug 7/1894. Depot at Ft Gibson, Cherokee Nation. Ind Territory. Taken during the payment, about July 18th 1894.” In July 1894, the U.S. government made massive “strip money” payments at Fort Gibson, Indian Territory (among other locations), to compensate members of the Cherokee Nation for the Cherokee Strip, which had been sold under pressure to the U.S. government and opened to non-Native settlement the year before. Over $6 million was distributed to eligible Cherokees, with about $1 million paid out directly at the Fort Gibson barracks in shares of $265.70 per eligible tribal member. This massive influx of cash drew enormous crowds through the Fort Gibson depot and to the fort—not just members of the Cherokee nation but also their creditors, merchants hoping to capitalize on tribal members’ newly acquired funds, gamblers, swindlers, and outlaws. U.S. troops were stationed to keep order, and were supported by armed Cherokee guards, standing on either side of the clerks at the disbursement table as individuals were called forward to receive their payments. James C. Macurdy (1837–1926) operated photography studios in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Missouri, Texas, and Arizona, as well as Lehigh, Indian Territory over the course of his long career. A striking photograph taken a year after the Cherokee Strip Land Run, showing crowds assembled at the Fort Gibson depot in July of 1894 during U.S. government payments to the Cherokee. REFERENCES: McMahan, Liz. “History: Payments brought crowds,” Muskogee Phoenix, June 25, 2008; Moser, Krystan. “The Cost of Free Land” at VisitCherokeeNation online; “James C. ‘J.C.’ Macurdy” at Find a Grave online; Boonslick. “J.C. Macurdy-Camp Parole Photographer” at Civil WarTalk online.
Item #10248
Price: $950.00
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